A shrub or small tree up to 5(—15) m tall; young shoots and buds rusty tomentose. Leaves simple, spirally arranged, crowded at the apex of the branchlets, leaving large scars, blade obovate-oblong, 10—35 cm x 4—12 cm, base cuneate, apex obtuse, sometimes mucronate, margin entire, hairy, midrib prominent below, lateral veins parallel ending in an intramarginal looped vein; petiole 3—8 cm long; stipules absent. Inflorescence an axillary erect raceme, 3—12 cm long. Flowers bisexual, 3(—5)-merous, small; sepals puberulous, erect, appressed, 0.5—1 mm long; petals concave, spreading, finally reflexed, accrescent to 2.5 mm x 1 mm; stamens twice as many as petals, up to 2 mm long; intrastaminal disk present; ovary superior, consisting of 2(—3) carpels, not more than 2 fertile, connate, except at the top, stigma sessile. Fruit an obcordate samara, up to 2.5 cm x 2 cm, pericarp hard corky. Seed round, 0.5—1 cm across, testa thin, cotyledons plano-convex.